MQM-P warns of protests if 2022 Karachi development deal not implemented

• MQM-P threatens to sit in oppositionif deal not implemented.
• Party says 40% quota share not being provided to Karachi.
• Fake domiciles used to give jobs on MQM-P's quota: Sattar.

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) senior leader Dr Farooq Sattar has threatened street protests and a move to the opposition benches if the federal government failed to implement the 18-point agreement signed with Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in 2022 for the development of Karachi.

Addressing a press conference, Sattar said the agreement, signed by PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, had not been implemented despite repeated reminders from MQM-P.

He said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had been a guarantor and witness to the agreement and must now play his role in ensuring its implementation.

"This is the last warning — if demands are not met, MQM-P will protest," he said, adding that the prime minister needed to personally intervene.

He said the agreement was MQM-P's final accord with the PPP, in which no administrative powers had been sought — only Karachi's construction and development. He said the 18 points of the agreement would have to be implemented without exception.

Sattar warned that if the demands were not accepted, MQM-P's members of the National Assembly would submit a request to the Speaker to be seated on the opposition benches.

"Any day, our request could go to the Speaker of the National Assembly," he said, adding that the people of Karachi should not be stopped later — if they were to be stopped, it should be now.

Sattar further said that MQM-P had long fought against the quota system and that 40% of their entitled quota share was not being provided. He added that jobs on MQM-P's quota had been given to individuals on fake domiciles.

He said the government was being run outside the bounds of the Constitution and law, and urged the federal government to fulfil its constitutional role.

He said the enactment of a local government law would resolve many of Karachi's issues, and called on the prime minister to visit Karachi and stay for four days. He also proposed holding a referendum on making Karachi a separate administrative unit under the federation, though he clarified he was not calling for governor's rule.

Sattar demanded the return of MQM-P's governorship, saying PPP had told the party that it had no hand in the removal of the governor — a claim on which MQM-P was seeking a clear explanation.

He said Karachi was home to speakers of every language in Pakistan and that its people deserved their rights. "Everyone in this country is in pain and distress," he said, adding that citizens were being deprived of their basic civic rights.